Capital Down Under

Not even a month after Metro completed its Phase I, with over 55 km spread across the city, work on Phase II has begun. Large-scale construction is on at the Yamuna for a bridge to transport the Metro from Indraprastha to New Ashok Nagar and Anand Vihar, on the doorstep of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. A team of 75, including labourers, supervisors and engineers, is working round the clock to ensure that the bridge is ready before target date.

Shouting out to the ‘Vibro’ operator to ‘‘compact’’ the soil harder, Garg explains: ‘‘45,000 cubic metres of soil will be compacted here to create a ‘bund’ in case the river bed ever gets flooded in the future. A maintenance depot will be built.’’ Truck loads of soil are being emptied near the bank even as the ‘Vibro’ presses large mounds compact, leaving the adjoining area quaking. Labourers clear the huge wells that will serve as foundations for the tracks.

As the sun goes down, there is no slackening in the pace of work. There never is. A labourer at the site, Shiv Kumar, says: ‘‘I started working here two months back. Kolkata se aaya hun. Metro me kabhi nahi baitha par aaj bana raha hoon. Din raat kaam hai yahan. Sardi me thoda break dete hein raat 12 se subah 4 tak (I am from Kolkata. I have never sat on the Metro but I am helping build it today. Work goes on day and night here. Because of the cold they give us a break, from midnight to 4 am).’’

B B Garg, Project Manager, Persys Arvind Techno, the private firm constructing the bridge for DMRC, says that while the target date is September 2007, ‘‘we will finish work much before that, probably by year-end. We are working round the clock’’. Work here began in September 2005. ‘‘17 piers/pillars will hold the bridge on the Yamuna bank. We have already constructed 13 of these and segments to be mounted on these are being cast at the Mundka castyard,’’ he adds.

What this means for Delhi: Phase I covers 55.79 km, carries 5 lakh passengers daily, ensures 1,650 less buses on Delhi roads, cuts 1.5 million commuter trips per day, saves 2 million manhours per day, has reduced accidents and pollution levels by 30 per cent, while saving fuel worth Rs 650 crore per year. Make your calculations for Phase II.

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